Editorial Cartoons by Graeme MacKay

Uncle Sam

Syria gas ‘kills 100s,’ Security Council meets

Syria’s opposition accused government forces of gassing hundreds of people on Wednesday by firing rockets that released deadly fumes over rebel-held Damascus suburbs, killing men, women and children as they slept.

With the death toll estimated between 500 and 1,300, what would be the world’s most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1980s prompted an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in New York.

The council did not explicitly demand a U.N. investigation of the incident, although it said “clarity” was needed and welcomed U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s calls for a prompt investigation by the U.N. inspection team in Syria, led by Ake Sellstrom.

An earlier Western-drafted statement submitted to the council, seen by Reuters, was not approved. The final version of the statement was watered down to accommodate objections from Russia and China, diplomats said. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed previous Western efforts to impose U.N. penalties on Assad.

Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said the allegations were “illogical and fabricated”. President Bashar al-Assad’s officials have said they would never use poison gas against Syrians. The United States and European allies believe Assad’s forces have used small amounts of sarin before, hence the current U.N. visit.

Immediate international action is likely to be limited, with the divisions among major powers that have crippled efforts to quell 2 1/2 years of civil war still much in evidence. (Source: Reuters)

Anger over proposed fee for Canadians entering U.S.

A proposal to charge travellers a fee for entering the U.S. by land has sparked anger in both countries, with opponents citing fears it will hinder border crossings and hurt the economy.

The proposal to study the new fee is included in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2014 budget.

In its proposal, the department urges a study examining the effect of collecting a crossing fee for both pedestrians and passenger vehicles along the Canadian and Mexican borders. Proponents say the fee is being considered as a way to cover increasing security costs.

U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Jacobson explained the study to reporters on Monday.

“There’s a proposal for some money for a study. We’ll wait to see what happens,” he said.

But opponents of the proposed fee already lashed out against it on Monday, saying it will complicate trade between the U.S. and Canada. It is estimated that nearly $1.6 billion in trade takes place every day along the U.S.-Canada border.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it would “vigorously lobby” against the proposal. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce called the fee a “serious mistake” and promised to fight it.
Chamber President Perrin Beatty told CTV News Channel the proposed fee unfairly punishes travellers. “The decision they’ve made is to study sticking it to the beleaguered traveller one more time,” Beatty said.

He said that if the fee is being used to cover security costs, it should be paid from general tax revenue and not charged to travellers. (Source: CTV News)

North Korea Moves Missile to Coast

Most analysts do not believe that North Korea has a missile powerful enough to deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States mainland or that it is reckless enough to strike the American military in the Pacific. Still, with the North’s bellicose language showing no signs of letting up, the United States said Wednesday that it was speeding the deployment of an advanced missile defense system to Guam in the next few weeks, two years ahead of schedule, in what the Pentagon said was a “precautionary move” to protect American naval and air forces from the threat of a North Korean missile attack.

Testifying before a parliamentary hearing, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin of South Korea said the missile North Korea had moved to the east coast, possibly “for demonstration or for training,” appeared not to be a KN-08, which analysts say is the closest thing North Korea has to an intercontinental ballistic missile, though its exact range is not known. The new missile was unveiled during a military parade in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, in April last year.

South Korean news media quoted military officials as saying that the missile was a Musudan. Deployed around 2007, the Musudan is a ballistic missile with a range of more than 1,900 miles, according to the South Korean Defense Ministry. Guam is nearly 2,200 miles from North Korea.

Wee Yong-sub, an army colonel and deputy spokesman for the Defense Ministry, would say only that the South Korean and American militaries had been closely monitoring the movements of all North Korean missiles, including the Musudan.

“Chances are not high that they will lead to a full-scale war,” said Mr. Kim, the defense minister, referring to the North Korean threats. “But given the nature of the North Korean regime, it’s possible that they will launch a localized provocation.”

Canada has contingency plan for fiscal cliff

Canada has a contingency plan should the United States not reach an agreement with respect to a series of tax hikes and spending cuts set to kick in next year or if the eurozone’s debt crisis worsens, finance minister Jim Flaherty said on Tuesday.

“I can assure you, we have contingency plans. This is not a new subject for us. We have been concerned about this subject for many months. And we prepare. So we have contingency plans not only with respect to the fiscal cliff, but with respect to the European situation were that to unravel in a disorderly way,” Flaherty told a news conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Flaherty’s comments follow his warning last week that a failure by U.S. politicians to reach a fiscal deal before Jan.1 will plunge the United States into a recession quickly, with Canada to follow shortly afterward.

“Were the entire fiscal cliff risk to become reality, the effect on U.S. GDP, according to the Americans themselves, would be 4 to 5%, which would put the U.S. economy into recession quite quickly and the Canadian would follow shortly thereafter,” Flaherty told reporters in Ottawa last Wednesday.

“We’re all concerned that it’s an immediate problem within the next 60 days that needs to be dealt with.”

There are estimates that going over this fiscal cliff would reduce U.S. gross domestic product by about four or five percentage points.

Flaherty said finding compromise won’t be easy for American politicians, but he pointed out that the Harper government was able govern for five years as a minority, so it can be done. Gridlock in Washington could prevent a deal to extend about US$600-billion in tax cuts and spending beyond Dec. 31. (Source: Financial Post)

U.S. to cut softwood duties almost in half

Canadian officials are cheering a move by the U.S. Commerce Department to chop softwood lumber duties by almost 50 per cent.The Commerce Department set the new rates on Tuesday, settling on average payments of 10.81 per cent.

That figure is a considerable drop from the current average payment of 20.15 per cent.

“This is a very positive step forward as Canada fights to have the illegal duties reduced to zero,” John Allan, president of the B.C. Lumber Trade Council, told the Canadian Press.

The softwood dispute has been the main trade irritant between Canada and the U.S.

The U.S. believes Canada improperly subsidizes softwood production because most U.S. timber is harvested from private land at market prices, while in Canada the wood is mostly cut on Crown land.

The U.S. government has collected about $5 billion in duties on Canadian softwood exports to the U.S. since the tariffs were introduced in May 2002. (Source: CBC)